The Schmidt House

Don't know if everyone listens to The Current, but have been enjoying Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Love them, they are coming to Mpls this summer and thinking it would be a fun show to see...

Dan took JG and his best bud JV up to Mille Lacs yesterday for a little fishing, they went on one of the charter boats - Dan figured it would be "easier" with the boys and was hoping that JG would have a good experience and want to fish more this summer. Dan has always wanted a little fishing buddy and now he has one. Guess that JG caught the first three fish on the boat of 12 charter fisherpeople. Third time was the charm. Little man managed to land a 7lb. 7oz walleye - it weighed as much as he did at birth! He was the envy of the boat and was so very proud. When Dan got home all he said was, "I have been fishing 33 years and have only caught one walleye bigger than JG's in my whole life. The kid goes out and catches that after his third try." Lucky little cuss...

this past week has been a whirlwind to say the least, i have barely had enough time to fit in breathing. i am drained and energized all at once...is that possible? i am at a cross roads of sorts, i am starting this new journey and am so very excited to enter the "sweet spot" of what i have been wanting to do for years. this new gig truly is my dream job... then on top of all of this i have been encouraged to think about my career in a new light and potentially go places that i have never dreamed of. . . when i was spoken to all that kept going around in my head was the title of this post... a poem i wrote a paper on twenty years ago in college - in 1990 i said that i would travel the "grassy road" that wanted wear... now in 2010 i hesitate... and am thankful i have time... i need a lot of time... because time will tell if our family will travel the road not taken and maybe someday... I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverg...

wishing I was home. flew in last night about 9:30pm, got up around 6:00am and have been going non-stop. I am exhausted, mentally and physically. this whole class has been an exercise in patience most days since you take 20 people and try to have them come to agreement and on top of it walk out with a recommendation. thought it would be easy, but nothing ever is - however through the process i have met some amazing people, who have taught me to look at the world differently. which i appreciate. went to a cotton warehouse today that holds 320,000 bales of cotton, pretty cool - have never seen real life cotton after it comes out of the gin. went to another grain elevator, i am getting pretty versed in those and am the IP police - sigh :) so once again buzzkill - i need to get some sleep - did I mention that I am freezing exhausted... and wishing i was home?

so this morning i woke up with dan's alarm, which was way to early for me - his business is busy again, thank goodness. things were touch and go for awhile there, however they are all putting in extra time now and people are wanting to build houses again. let's hope that this continues, he is much more pleasant when things are busy. i thought i would just lay in bed and listen to the rain (soon to be snow unfortunately - wth) and reflect on the past few weeks and try to catch up on email, the news, and life. the quiet has been out of the picture thanks to our daughter and her iPod - every morning she gets ready and blares justin bieber...sigh. all i have managed to do though is figure out what happened on lost (have been a little lost), realize that i need to update the hotel for nationals in nashville, so got caught up on the flooding and sit here and contemplate how horrible that person who had a typo must feel when they realized they sent the stock market into an tizzy. i me...

JG is making his First Communion this weekend, we went a few weeks ago to the final class with his group where the kids were able to do a "test run" of the whole process. This is where the life with JG fun began... Let me set the stage... about a month ago JG came home and informed his parents that he can't wait to get to college, rationale was - you have lots of fun and drink beer. Where he got this I don't know, he has been hanging out with some of the older boys in the neighborhood - who knows. So Dan asked, "How do you know that is what you want to do? How do you even know if you like beer?" Dan had a beer and let JG smell to which little man said, "Not so bad." Then he put a little taste on his finger which resulted in major dramatics, imagine feigning choking, spitting repeatedly and stating, "That is the worst thing that I ever tasted in my whole life!" So we thought case closed, end of beer drinking dreams in college. Fast forward...

So, my mom and my mother-in-law both said that they have been missing The Schmidt House - I have to admit I kinda do too. It feels like I am not keeping up my end of the documentation bargain - so need to get back into the groove of telling stories and sharing our chaos which seems to be plentiful. I don't know if anyone knew, but I just took at new job at Cargill - will be starting next Monday - so very excited, I am moving to "the business". This new gig is really my dream job and can't wait! More details to come - Oh, will still be spending my time in grain elevators :)